Another week, another walk, and more of the same - animals, people, plops....I keep taking pictures of these things because they are pretty much all I see. At least this week, the people part was easier. We took a rickshaw over the closest "flyover" (overpass) and walked to a nearby village that we always pass en route to somewhere else. Every time we go through this area, I always regret that I am not on foot, mainly because there are usually a lot of goats roaming around. The ones in my neighborhood are always tethered to bicycles or riding in rickshaws. I started out just taking pictures of the movie posters and animals (my m.o.), but was quickly approached by the locals, all of whom wanted their photo taken!
This past week, I did ask a co-worker to write down a bunch of helpful photo-related sentences for me to say in Hindi and Kannada. Like "You are looking very beautiful, Ma'am, one photo please," and "May I please take a photo of you? I enjoy making photos for my best hobby," but I didn't even have to use any of this sweet talk. (Which is good, because I didn't remember it exactly, and probably would have said something horribly offensive. Curse words like "ben chode" [sister fucker] are a lot easier for me to recall than routine pleasantries, I am afraid.) People were literally following us down the road begging for a photo! So I got the people shots I wanted with 75% less awkwardness!
According to Stuti, most of these people don't even own mirrors, which explains why they are so delighted with the tiny digital screen playback feature.I just figured they were in awe of modern technology, but maybe they are just happy to get an opportunity to check themselves out! I honestly hadn't even considered that.......and I kinda feel like a schmuck.....but also a little less guilty, because I know that for these people, this weekend, I was sort of doing good. I'm looking forward to going back there with the prints.
In other news, we met an older British man on the street and ended up hanging out with him all day on Sunday. His name is Allistair, and he might be our new best friend. I think we are having brunch next weekend. He told us about his "sling box," which is some device he uses to tap into his cable box back in the UK, so he can watch all of his normal programs, and even fuck with his son and change the channels all the way from India! I seriously wish I had one of those....someone please figure out how to do this so that I don't have to keep watching movies in 10-minute segments on Youtube.
first, have to say i'm loving the new background! i don't know if my eyes are just crazy but after i'd read the white words on the black background, if i looked away, everything looked lined! so weird.
ReplyDeleteanyways, just wanted to comment about the one picture where there is a mysterious and seemingly unattached leg in the area near a kid who clearly had both legs on the ground. where did the leg come from??
and those are some classy plop shots. keep up the great work!!